11.2: Analytical

When and where did I find this word: I found this word as I was reading Chapter 10 in the Content-Area Writing Book written by Harvey Daniels, Steven Zemelman, and Nancy Steineke. I have been trying to catch up on school work today (November 19th, 2011) so this post should have already been published. The term analytical caught my attention because we talk about it so often yet I don't usually stop to think about it when it's in print. For some reason while I was reading, I felt I needed a better understanding of this term. The text was talking about assessing a student's analytical thinking.

What this word means: The term analyze (to me) means to critically look, think, or work with. The text wants to know about a student's analytical thought processes so I would assume the gist of the word is similar to that of critically thinking about something. According to www.dictionary.com, analytical means pertaining to or proceeding by analysis. Analysis is defined as the separating of any material or abstract entity into its constituent elements.

Familiarity: I would say I am fairly familiar with this word yet my general understanding of the term is/was skewed. I looked at the term as having to do with critically thinking about, and while you still do that it really means to break down into its elemental parts to look and think about them individually.

Is this a word I want to know well? With the amount of times I have seen and heard this term used in the education field, I would definitely say that I want to know this word well. It is a word that I should be using more often within the contexts of my conversations in classrooms. Breaking down processes in the education field seems to be a beneficial way in teaching students to learn material and concepts they should know/acquire.

Is this a word I want others to know well?: I think that others in the education field should certainly know this word well since it involves the thinking process of his/her students. If we are not familiar with the terms that are being used in our daily classrooms, educational settings then I think we are held back as educators delivering our greatest potential.